Good Job, Brain! - 213: Watch Party

Episode Date: June 23, 2021

Let’s melt our brains with a trivia-filled celebration all about TV! Can you figure out what films these funny newspaper TV summaries by Rick Polito are describing? Dana tests us on the most watched moments in world history, and Karen tries to find the weakest link in her game show quiz. Colin takes us on a wild ride about NBA TV rights that starts with Will Ferrell, makes a pitstop at KFC, and then ends with the greatest deal in sports history. Find yourself trapped in a TV show? Take this quiz to escape Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. In the good job brain system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups, the quizzers who pose questions, and the brave men and women who answer them. These are their stories. Hello, compellingly, compassionate, community composed of compadres, comma, commuters, comma, and competitors. Welcome to Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. Today's episode is 213.

I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your procession of proactive, prolific pros, providing pros about prostate and prosciutto. I'm Colin. I'm Dana. And I'm Chris. I would like to pose this question to our listeners. Do you enjoy listening to Good Job Brain? Because if, in fact, you do, and maybe you don't, maybe you're doing this to punish yourself.

But if you actually enjoy listening to Good Job Brain, you want to hear more Good Job Brain that is not Good Job Brain. For the first time ever, the entire Good Job Brain cast was a guest. One guest formed out of the bodies of four people on the upcoming. It was super gross. On a podcast you can listen to right now, it is called Escape This Podcast, where the hosts come up with a escape room full of puzzles that we play in podcast form. And we had a blast doing it. It was actually the season finale of this whole story arc, and we got to be the final guest closing out this epic story that was running through, I think, 10 different episodes. It involved, I mean, it involved Neil Patrick Harris at one point.

Done, all done. Literally. Literally, actually Neil Patrick Harris was actually on this show. It involved two out of the three McElroy Brothers. It was really, there were multiple contestants from Survivor and then us. We made it out. I think that you, person listening to Good Job Brain, should also check out this episode. You might want to listen to the whole arc. I say, start at the beginning.

It's very good. And it's put on by Bill and Danny, who are. two good job brain listeners. They are hardcore trivia people who have been on numerous Australian trivia-related TV shows. So there are kind of people. Danny is the one who makes the puzzles, and they are so good and so fun.

A lot of this stuff we're hearing for the first time, and so we're taking notes, we're drawing maps. It just was so original. With so much fun, Chris's son got mad at Chris because we recorded past our art. our time because we were having so much fun. Yeah, there's actually two things to listen to because it's

escape this podcast and there's it's also podcast to this escape, the spin-off show that they do where they talk to us about the puzzles that we just did, which is also I think we're listening to, yeah. Oh, and one more thing. They release the puzzles every week or every episode so that way you could run

the puzzles with your friends if you wanted to. Yeah. So give it a listen. Thank you Bill and Danny for inviting us and letting us solve your amazing puzzles. We had so much fun and hopefully we'll do it again sometime.

Yes, invite us back, please. Without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment Pop Quiz, Hot Shot. Here I have, I found my random Trivial Pursuit card. You guys have your barnyard buzzers. Let's answer some questions.

Blue Wedge for Georg. the cities of Indio and Palm Springs are located in which California Valley Whoa, that was Dana. Death Valley? Incorrect.

Chris. Simi Valley? Incorrect. You guys all heard this day. Probably didn't know it was a valley. Coachella? Coachella. Home of the Coachella Valley

Music and Arts Festival. Oh, Pink Wedge. Bam Bam is the son of which Stone Age couple? Uh, Colin. Bam Bam is the son of Barney and Betty Rubble. Correct. I didn't know you spell B-A-M-M-Dash B-A-M-M. Oh, four-Ms.

Yellow Edge. Leaders of 175 nations gathered at the UN in April 2016 to sign the Paris Agreement, a global pact to fight what? Colin? Global warming or emissions or I don't know how it was worded, but I believe that's what it was, right? Climate change. Climate change these days, that's right. Purple Wedge.

Mr. Smee is the bumbling sidekick of which literary villain? Chris. Captain Hook. Captain Hook from Peter Pan. Green Wedge for Science and Nature. What's the common name for the third molars inside a human mouth? Chris. Wisdom teeth.

Yes. Oh, a human mouth. They're counting backwards. Got you. Heard counting backwards. Yeah, that's why I was like, that makes so much sense. All right. Last question, Orange Wedge.

What is the most followed sport in India? Most. Oh, okay. It is multiple choice. Oh, okay. I think we can get it, but Chris buzzed it. Cricket. Cricket.

Correct. It is cricket as well. Yeah, all right. What were the other choices they gave us? I'm just curious. The other choices were badminton, soccer, or tennis. No. Cricket is by far.

Soccer was the Joe Bloggs answer there. Yeah. Ooh, good job, everybody. All right, guys, today's episode, I want to ask you, back in November 2015, the Collins English Dictionary chose what word to be the word of the year? And it's an activity. Oh. Oh. Oh, oh, oh.

He didn't have to buzz this. Collin, please. Is it binge watch? It is binge watch. Yep, yeah. Binge watch. Word of year 2015. That's like six years ago, but it seems pretty recent.

I don't know. And, you know, this is all thanks to streaming services, especially Netflix, releasing all the episodes of a season. Oh, man. At once. So before the term was marathon, you know, but I think that, I think that, I think. that's tied to like tv channels doing like oh i'm doing a lord of the yeah marathon i think it's also tied to healthy behavior versus what it really is like when you're watching a bunch of shows at once i didn't think about that yeah marathon versus binge no i am watching a marathon

i'm just doing a marathon so of course one of our favorite past times things we like doing is watching TVs, watching shows, watching stuff on our screens. So this week, it's a watch party. TV party tonight. What? TV party tonight. Oh! We got nothing better to do

than watch TV and have a couple of bruce. Don't want to talk about anything else. We don't want to know. We're dedicated here to our favorite shows. Okay. I'll go first. Back in the spring of 2015, just a few years into season one of Good Job Brain, we had our 150th episode, and that was an all-quiz banan. I know, can you believe it? And I mentioned during this all-quizbanan, a funny description of a movie that once appeared in a newspaper's TV listing.

Let me dial that back a little bit for the kids. Probably know what a newspaper is, but the TV. but if you wanted to watch the movie on the TV it would be on at a certain time so you have to go get a physical newspaper match it up you'd have to leave your house and go to a news to buy the newspaper open it up

and look down the paper and it would say that such and such a movie was going to be on TV at that time and then you had to be there to watch it when you describe it that way it sounds insane why would anyone bother it's jumping to all entertainment that existed. Exactly. It's jumping through a lot of hoops to watch a cut-up-ass version of a five-year-old movie, but we did it. Then, of course, inside the newspaper would be a description of the, because again, how would you know what the movie was about? You'd have to read a small description of the film to see if this was something that you might want to invest your time into. And there was a description of a film in a newspaper's TV listing, and it read, transported to a surreal landscape, a

young girl kills the first person she meets, then teams up with three strangers to kill again. And this was, of course, a description of the... Wizard of Oz. Yes. And this was a very funny description of the film written by a comedy writer named Rick Polito, Rick Polito, who to this day still does these funny off-kilter descriptions for a newspaper called the Pacific Sun, which is here in the Bay Area. Like printed? Printed.

Yes. It's an all weekly. Yeah, it's a printed newspaper. Yes. So anyway, with the theme of this episode, I thought it would be fun to revisit you a round two. Rick Polito's description of the film and you tell me the film. All right.

Some of these folks are going to be a little more difficult than last time. So I'm also going to give you the year of the film in case you need to narrow it down a little bit. Do you think it's because, like, The plot description is, is harder or the movie is more obscure? Sometimes, both. Okay, okay. Sometimes the plot description might be, might not have quite enough information. But then additionally, it's also like, you know, some of these movies when they came out in 2003, everybody was talking about them.

But 2003 was a long time ago, and maybe we've forgotten some of these sort of like, yeah, I know. So let's see, let's see how you do. Question one. This is a buzz in quiz. and one. A short guy with Harry Feet goes camping with his Renfair friends in order to complete a jeweler's complicated return policy. Colin. Would that be the Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring? Yes, Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring.

I called on you because I knew I could count on you to deliver both the title and the subtitle of the film. Thanks. I guess that's true. I would have said, Lord of the Rings won. A son helps his father share his true feelings and confront an emotionally manipulative supervisor. Karen. Mary Poppins. Oh, not for 1983. Oh, yeah, that's true.

That's too late. It has a kid. A son helps his father share his true feelings and confront an emotionally manipulative supervisor. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Holland. 1983. That is Star Wars Return of the Jedi. Exactly. Thank you so much.

Great work on that one. All right. That's great. 2007, in the sequel, Treasure Hunter Benjamin Gates discovers a book kept by the president with the answers to such mysteries as the JFK assassination, the Roswell incident, who shot JR, and whether there is a role. Nicholas Cage would turn down. Carrie? National treasure colon, book of secrets.

Exactly. Yes, very good. National treasure colon book of secrets. Yes, yes. Nice, nice job. Okay, we're doing good. We're doing good. Okay.

2018, 2018. Oh, okay. Yes. A sociopath goes jewelry shopping. 2018. 2018. 2018. A sociopath goes jewelry shopping.

jewelry collecting my feet of all right oh it's oh it's um Avengers end game is it that one the one with Thanos and he has all the oh no Infinity War I cannot I cannot give you a point for end game I'm sorry it is Avengers Infinity War um 1989 another woman gives up her career for a man 1989 I'm gonna Karen pretty woman it is not Not Pretty Woman. That would have been good.

Probably the biggest animated film of 1989. Oh, oh. Little mermaid. Yeah, it's no little mermaid. 1989. Wait, what was her career, though? She was a singer. That's true.

I guess it seemed like an antique collector. She was, she was a singer. That was why she gave up her voice because her voice was her big talent. Okay. I think I think of her as like an antique collector, you know. Right. That was her side hustle. All right.

Ninety-four. Unable to find funding, a visionary doctor is forced to conduct his research in a run-down castle, but is able to accommodate his lab assistant's posture deformity and make important discoveries. Dana. Young Dr. Frankenstein? No. It is not Young Frankenstein. The classic Millbrook's film?

No. That is not 1990. 1994 and I do need the full title of this film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein That's it! That's it! Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Trying to capitalize on the success of course of Bram Stoker's Dracula from a couple years prior

94 94 Mary Shelley Was it the Kenneth Branagh one? Yeah, and Robert De Niro Yeah, okay, okay The monster I saw this one in the theater, man And Julia Roberts

Played Frankenstein. She gave up her job for a man's monster. Yep. Yep. 2015, cancel culture activists call for the end of a popular reality TV show. 2015. Cancel culture activists call for the end of a popular reality TV show. And this, again, I will accept nothing less than the exact specific title of this film.

Yeah, go ahead. You guys are so good. It's got to be one of the Hunger Games ones. Oh, okay. I'll get canceled. So it must be Hunger Games, the last one. Mockingjay. Is it Mockingjay, the last one?

I'm throwing the ball up there. You guys got a hell of youp at home. Don't give a sports analogy, man. Didn't Mocken J have two parts? Oh, yeah, it was part two probably. I say part one. Dana says part two. Karen says part one.

Dana gets the point. It is the Hunger Games, Mocking J. Part two. Part two. I just listed a bunch of stuff. I cheated. But give me the point in the grand tolly anyway. Going back to 1983, a great year for movies.

A family embarks on a long and arduous journey encountering setbacks and delays only to find their destination closed down when they get there in this troubling metaphor for your company's retirement plan. I think it was Karen first. I heard of it. National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation. No.

You overthought it. I think you overthought it. Family vacation. No, I believe it's. National Lampoon's Vacation. National Lampoon's Vacation is the title of the original, 1983. Yeah, that was a sequel. Vegas vacation in the 90s.

Yeah, this is the one where they go to Raleigh World. A couple more. 1997 Ethan Hawke and Umah Thurman exist in a superficial society where achievement and opportunity are based on looks.

They are also in this movie about an authoritarian future. Karen. Gattaca. It's Gattaca. Made out of DNA letters at the time of it. Yes, yes.

A great joke. Again, all of these. I did not write these. These are all written by Rick Polito. Very good. Very, very funny, very funny. They make for a great quiz. Okay, a couple more.

1988. Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Charlie Sheen play young outlaws on the run in the Old West, robbing trains and small town banks to support their hair jail habit. Karen. Young guns. Young guns. Yeah.

Yeah. And finally that movie. My friend was obsessed with that movie. That's her awakening as a woman, I think, that movie. That's what I think is. When you said it, I was like, oh, I know what movie this is, but I didn't. Oh. Finally, the last one, 1995.

Is an updated telling of the rivalry between King Arthur and Lancelot really worth the risk of seeing Richard Gere in tights? Huh. I can't imagine him. What was the, I think this was, I think that this kind of happened kind of coming off the back of Robin Hood Prince of Prince of Thieves and the success there, maybe, because this was, I remember this being a thing, it was like this kind of sexy like fighting over Guinevere, Richard Gear, yeah. Is it something just like Knights of the Round Table?

I mean, I would just be able to. It's got the word night in it. I don't know if you remember this. Oh, Night's Tale. Dana? Is it First Night? Last night? It's first night. That's it.

You got it. See, it was up there. It was up there bouncing around in the noggin. Yeah, first night. King Arthur, Sean Connery and Richard Gears, Arthur and Lance a lot. Wow, this is so mid-90s. Oh, very much so.

Very much so. I don't think I was allowed to watch it. Yeah, this sounds like it was a sexy. Hey, okay, great job. You guys did really good, like, piecing it together from the clues again. Brickledo, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful newspaper descriptions of these films that he still does, makes for a good quiz. I wonder if he's on cameo.

Oh, Richard Geer? Oh, no, Rick Toledo. Oh, how fun. He's on cameo. We can get him to like, you know. Do one. Right. Right. This is our only lens for viewing the world now is cameo. Yeah. And we get a cameo of this. So, released along with this episode this week, I prepared a mini episode that's going to come out at the same time. As many of you guys know, I was on the first season of The Chase, a game show here that was originally from the UK, and they rebooted earlier in 2021. Game shows are just naturally so interesting. So released with this episode is a special mini bonus episode where I talk to some of the people who've been on game shows and a little bit about their experience, including our good job, brain, now six-time American Crossword tournament winner. Tyler Hinman, he was on Fox's Superhuman. And then we also have a good job brain listener, Amy, who was on a bunch of stuff.

But more importantly, most importantly, she was on supermarket sweep. Yes. That's my dream. This is live. And speaking of the chase, I also invited my friend Elliot, who is also a contestant on my season of the chase. And we'll talk about our experiences, tips and tricks of how to best audition, what the process is like. So if you're curious about the inner workings of some of the game shows and our stories, be sure to tune in to our mini episode released at the same time this week.

And with that said, I actually have a game show challenge for everybody. Rapid Fire. Here we go. All about game shows. We ready? Yeah. I'll splice in some music. Like some heart, you know, they always have like the heartbeat music.

it makes you, it makes you kind of nervous. Here we go. Question number one. A Time for Tony is another name for which game show's iconic theme song. A Time for Tony. Colin. Jeopardy. Correct.

Oh, okay. Oh, right, right, right. What reality competition first debuted in Sweden under the name Expedition Robinson? Chris. Is it Survivor? Correct. Survivor. Where in the world is Carmen San Diego was a children's geography

game show inspired by what? Dana. A video game. Correct. Before Drew Carey, who was the host of the Price is Right? Oh. Chris. Bob Barker.

Correct. How many briefcases are there in deal or no deal? Ooh. Chris. 50. Incorrect. 36. You're close.

It is 26. What physical game show is named after a surfing term for falling? Chris. White bow. Correct. How many people are surveyed for responses on family feud? Dana. 100?

Correct. The popular saying no whammy comes from which game show? Colin. Press your luck. Correct. Pat Sejack is the host of what game show since 1981? Chris. Wheel of Fortune.

Correct. What has been the highest value version of the pyramid? Oh, Colin. One million dollar pyramid. Incorrect. Chris. $100,000. Correct.

$100,000 is the highest value. What game show would you give a bonus for grinding your coffee? Everybody. Supermarket sweep. I'm so biased. We love that show. Golden medley is the main bonus round of what game show? Chris.

Name that tune. Correct. Newsman Anderson Cooper once hosted What Sneaky Game Show? Hmm. Sneaky. Oh. Colin.

The mole. The mole. Correct. The mole. Fantastic game show. I remember that one. You know, peak 2000 aesthetic. What game show are you on if you had to pick a giant slime-filled nose?

Dana Double dare Correct And or family double dare It's true As well It's true The weakest link first appeared

In what country Dana U.K Correct Regis Philburn once was the primetime host For what game show Dana

Who wants to be a millionaire Correct Can someone name another celebrity host Dana Meredith Vieira Correct I forgot about that I also would accept Jimmy Kimmel, who is a celebrity millionaire host.

And last question. What U.S. competition is based on the Japanese program called Sasuke. Ooh. What U.S. Is it American Ninja Warrior? Correct. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Good job, everybody.

Now, Karen, I have a point of order here that might free out. and um actually uh did did pat sayjack not take a break from hosting the show for a while there i believe that he hosted took a break they had a series of other hosts and then pat say jet came back to the show with some great fanfare oh interesting let's look it up she didn't say continuously but i think it was implied i remember like at one point like ralph bernerski was the host of wheel of fortune i feel like oh okay say jack host the daytime series until 1989 when he left to host a late night talk show for CBS. That's what it was. That's right. He wanted to, yeah, he had, he had, you know, bigger ambitions maybe or.

Good job, everybody. One thing I will share with you guys, the one thing that blew my mind. I mean, there are a lot of things that blew my mind being on a TV game show on primetime TV. But the one thing that really blew my mind, there was a auditor. on their on taping day and his job you know we even got a little special talk and his job was essentially to monitor that the game is fair yeah which is a nice way of saying like don't cheat we're watching you no shenanigans yeah but also that they're an independent person and they're going to make sure that the show does not cheat you even yeah yes exactly yeah so that like this show yeah so it's because of oh well there was a there's a movie in the 90s

called Quisho about the Quisho scandals in the 1950s where people were colluding and producers kind of changing it up for ratings and became a big legal case. It implemented a bunch of laws including this, you know, being on a game show now requires a third party auditor who comes to make sure that everything's running as fairly as possible. You know, even if you see somebody who is like, you know, maybe another contestant talking to a producer like by the dumpster or something maybe they're just hanging out but like it seems kind of sketchy and you're supposed to report you have to report all these things so if you go out to the bathroom you have to be escorted you know so a lot of these things happen and i i had no idea i was like oh of course that

makes so much sense they're dealing with giving away hundreds and thousands of dollars and so they have to make sure that it's fair for everybody weird right yeah so that's my cool tidbit and for more uh production stories uh check out our companion episode. And I remember, I remember when I tried out for Jeopardy years ago, they get so many lawyers from L.A. that the code on Jeopardy is, if they say so-and-so, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, that means they live in L.A. And if they say, once worked as a bookkeeper, that's code for they're a lawyer.

And because they overwhelm, they get so many lawyers from L.A. And I learned that, oh, so I watch Jeopardy. Yeah, the originally from, that means they live in L.A. There are really many reasons to listen to our podcast, Big Picture Science. It's kind of a challenge to summarize them all, Molly. Okay, here's a reason to listen to our show, Big Picture Science, because you love to be surprised by science news. We love to be surprised by science news.

So, for instance, I learned on our own show that I had been driving around with precious metals in my truck before it was stolen. That was brought up in our show about precious. metals and also rare metals like most of the things in your catalytic converter. I was surprised to learn that we may begin naming heat waves like we do hurricanes. You know, prepare yourself for heat wave Lucifer. I don't think I can prepare myself for that. Look, we like surprising our listeners. We like surprising ourselves by reporting new developments in science. And while asking the big picture questions about why they matter and how they will affect our lives today and in the future.

Well, we can't affect lives in the past, right? No, I guess that's a point. So the podcast is called Big Picture Science, and you can hear it wherever you get your podcasts. We are the host. Seth is a scientist. I'm a science journalist, and we talk to people smarter than us.

We hope you'll take a listen. When the creators of the popular science show with millions of YouTube subscribers, comes the Minute Earth podcast. Every episode of the show dives deep into a science question you might not even know you had, but once you hear the answer, you'll want to share it with everyone you know.

Why do rivers curve? Why did the T-Rex have such tiny arms? And why do so many more kids need glasses now than they used to? Spoiler alert, it isn't screen time. Our team of scientists digs into the research and breaks it down into a short, entertaining explanation, jam-packed with science facts and terrible puns. Subscribe to Minute Earth wherever you like to listen. Okay, so when this episode airs, I believe we will be just a few short weeks away from that

great American secular holiday. Bobby Bonilla Day. Yay. Coming up on July 1st. It's almost upon us again. It's our favorite. Good job, Brain. Day holiday.

I love that we've adopted this day. Yeah. So for, you know, for listeners who don't know or may not remember, this is sort of baseball related, but even non-baseball fans, I think, love this one. So Bobby Bonilla was a baseball player. He was released by the New York Mets more than 20 years ago now. And per the terms of this. deal he and his agents and lawyers negotiated instead of a single payment at the time.

Bobby Bonilla receives a yearly payment of $1.2 million American every July 1st, starting in 2011 and running until 2035. Wow. Yeah. I mean, this is. That's the dream. It's truly the American dream, Chris. That's the supermarket sweep of your boss.

Your boss might lay you off. but then every year they have to send you a check for $1.2 million and get made fun of online. Just like clockwork now. It's time to clown the Mets again. This is like this is what happens. I feel like for him that he's very intelligent about personal finances. But he also surrounds himself with people who are very knowledgeable. Yes.

With this type of stuff. It's like, wow. Yes. Yes. Karen, you could even say Bobby Biniu was far more knowledgeable than the Mets, who as it turns out, lost a good amount of money to. the Bernie Madoff scan, yes, that's right. So when we decided to loop back around to the topic of television,

I thought I would take a chance to share a story with you guys that I've loved for years and years and years. I think this story can appeal to anybody who loves forward-thinking negotiations and the power of television. Okay, so I can't believe I'm asking this as an intro to an ostensibly educational segment here. But have you guys seen the movie semi-pro with Will Ferrell?

Oh, yeah. And Andre 3,000 from Outcast. That's correct. Yes, Andre 3,000 from Outcast is in it as well. Right, right. So here, I will share the description with you. So per IMDB, Jackie Moon, the owner-coach player of the American Basketball Association's Flint, Michigan Tropics, rallies his teammates to make their

NBA dreams come true. That is a very good summary. Will Ferrell, of course, played Jackie Moon, the erstwhile soul singer, I believe, who became the owner of the Flint Tropics in the movie. Now, the movie has, you know, the usual layers of Will Ferrell silliness, and it was by no means, by no means, based on a true story. But at its core, it did revolve around some very real events that were occurring. in not just a fascinating time in NBA, basketball, pro history, but the evolution of

pro sports as a modern business in the TV era. I have a story of you guys. This has been called the greatest deal in sports history. Wait, greater than Bobby Bonilla. Greater than Bobby Bonilla, Karen. Greater than Bobby Bonilla. All right. So let's flash back here, shall we?

to the mid-late 1960s. Now, the NBA was still in a lot of ways a rising sports league. Wow, that's weird to imagine. Yeah, it is hard to imagine today, especially when NBA stars arguably some of the most famous athletes in the world, maybe behind, you know, some pro soccer players. In 1967, the NBA, they only had teams in 10 cities at that point. And that year, among some other challengers to the NBA's sort of hold on professional hoops in the U.S. popped up the ABA, the American Basketball Association.

So as depicted in the Will Ferrell movie, the ABA was a real basketball league. It was a challenger to the larger NBA. And ultimately, they did merge with the NBA. I will sort of jump ahead a little bit in the story. This period, like the mid to late 60s, had just seen. a lot of kind of turbulence in pro sports, right? The AFL and NFL had just merged in pro football. The idea was among the founders of the ABA, let's start a league that will eventually

force the NBA to buy us out. It's like a startup mentality. They advertise to potential investors that they could basically get a new ABA franchise for half of what it cost to get an NBA franchise because we were, We were a little more, you know, kind of smaller seat of the pants operations. And their goal was, let's go in cities that the NBA doesn't serve, largely, smaller cities. We're going to be more fun. We're going to be kind of scrappier.

But ultimately, ultimately, really the goal was to get bought out, okay? To be enough of a competition. That's right. They had sort of seen the model within pro football. They're like, wait a minute. They don't want to become big. That's right. That's right.

If we get big enough, it is. It's very startup. mentality, you know, today, if you're like you're starting your software company, you might want to get bought by Google or Microsoft or somebody like that. Now, the ABA did, in fact, push the NBA to be more fun, I think, all around. The ABA came up with the three-point shot. Like, that was an ABA invention, not an NBA invention. In fact, a lot of the NBA people were pretty stodgy in those days. The ABA came up with the slam dunk contest, you know, things that just seem, you know, inextricable from modern NBA play today. They had the red, white,

and blue ball, you know, that was their answer to the boring old orange leather ball of the did they do the thing with the trampoline? So yeah, this is where the Will Ferrell movie diverges a little bit. Yeah, you were not likely to see people wrestling bears at real life ABA exhibition games. But the ABA had a lot of players who would go on to greater fame later. The ABA gave us the world legends like Dr. J. That is where Dr. J made his name was in the ABA. before he joined the NBA. Their goal was to get bought out,

but they wanted to sort of stay in business long enough to do this. It turned out that it was actually, they were having a hard time maintaining the level of support and revenue. They only had one of its teams was in a top 20 American market, you know, in New York. Aside from that, they just couldn't draw enough people. They couldn't get enough TV rights. They couldn't, couldn't, couldn't. So after a few years of pushing and prodding and negotiating,

ultimately the NBA did agree to merge, absorb the smaller league, or most of it. Okay. By the time the talks had sort of come to the point that, like, yes, this is going to happen. There were only seven teams left in the ABA. You know, they started with, you know, almost twice that. Some of them just really couldn't keep it together and just fold it outright. Some of them tried their best. For whatever reason, they were down to seven teams. And so they got together. And the owners of the seven teams basically came up. They said, like, all right, we want to get bought out. It's probably likely that the NBA will want to take six of us, but not seven of us, right?

Make scheduling easier. You can have like nice, even divisions and balanced and things like that. So they got together and they rode into their agreement, basically. They said, all right, if the NBA buys six of us, whoever is the odd team out, we will collectively agree to give the owners of that team. one-seventh of whatever profits that we make from being bought by the NBA. So they're moving forward, mid-70s, late 1975, heading into 1976. As the negotiations progress, the NBA makes it clear they are going to accept four of the seven teams.

They don't want six, they don't want seven, they want four. And they wanted just the four, basically, the cream of the three. crop. They wanted the most successful teams. They didn't want to be carrying, you know, in their minds, maybe some dead weight. So, you know, the teams that ended up merging that still exist today are the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs, who of course are going on to win many titles. And then at the time, they were the New York Nets. They are today the Brooklyn Nets once again. So the NBA says, we'll take four of those teams, you know, the other three kind of, you guys, you all figure it out. Yeah. By the time the merge

date came, one of the teams had just gone bankrupt entirely, just totally belly up. So, okay, all right, now we're down to six. One of the teams, the Kentucky Colonels, now, Chris, I believe in the past, Chris, you educated us that Kentucky Colonels as a concept existed well before the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. Indeed, yes. The team was named after the concept of the Kentucky Turnals. However, it was, in fact, owned by the owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken at the time. So he decided, you know what, I'm just going to cut my losses here.

I'm just going to take a buyout. So John Brown Jr. took a one-time payout of $3.3 million to just waive all rights at that time. That's right. Yeah, $1975 here. So now we're down to five teams, okay? One belly up. One took a payout. So there's the four teams that I mentioned before.

And then there is the Spirits of St. Louis, which was owned. by the Silna brothers, Ozzie and Daniel Silna, S-I-L-N-A. Upon hearing that the NBA only wanted to take four teams, and specifically those four teams I mentioned, they were pretty mad. They're like, wait, no, we wanted to be in the NBA. And they really did. They really wanted to join the NBA and run an NBA franchise. So rather than take a one-time payout, they said, hey, wait a minute, we worked in this

deal. Remember that the teams that don't make it to the NBA get a one-seventh share from the other remaining teams. So this is what, in fact, Ozzy and Daniel Silna did, is they said to the NBA, great, we will waive our claim to the team. We want four sevenths of a share of NBA team rights. And specifically, they wanted TV rights. Okay. So this is 1970s. The Silnas are now out of the basketball business officially, but every year they get a share, four sevenths of one share of the NBA's TV rights. Okay, now, that worked out to about 2% of the league's broadcasting revenue.

I was not told there would be math. Yes, I'm giving you the math here. Okay. Say 2%. Roughly of the total leagues. But it came out of those four teams. So the nuggets, the nets, the Pacers, the Spurs, had to chip in every year

a seventh of their broadcast revenue profits and basically it went over to the Silna brothers. Oh my gosh. So not the league like one seventh of each of those four teams they have to

square away to give it to oh my God and they're good teams. Those were good teams and now again the way that league TV rights work is they pool money. Okay and this is true for lot of pro sports. So, you know, the Yankees TV money, you know, kind of floats the boat of some of the poorer performing teams in baseball. And the same is true in the NBA. So now, yeah, it sounds like a great deal already. Just at that, like you're getting four seventh of a share for opening

the mailbox every, you know, and getting your, getting cash in a check. And now this is 1976. I want to put this in perspective for you guys. TV rights were such a tiny percentage of the revenue that the NBA made compared to today. In the late 70s, games were still being shown on tape delay late at night okay NBA finals games in 1981 the title clinching game was shown at 1130 at night on tape delay after the local news this is like it was so as such an afterthought to CBS and the major networks if you were watching your local 11 o'clock news the sports guy would come on and be like okay now you might want to look away from the screen for a few minutes so you don't get spoiled on

game that has not aired yet, but I'm about to tell you who won. Wow. That's how small time, how small potatoes the NBA TV rights were. Yeah. So now, through the 1980s, thanks to players like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, TV rights started to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Through the 80s, it looks like through the 80s total, okay, collectively the 80s, the Silna's collected $8 million.

Okay. Not bad. Not bad. From 1990 to 1994 alone, yeah, just these four years alone, they got more than $18 million. Oh, my God. Now, because every few years, the NBA renegotiates their TV contracts with TV networks, ESPN and ABC and whatnot. And so the dollars keep going up and up and up and up. By the years 1998 to 2002, that four years netted them $50 million, the Silnas.

again, for just having once owned a team. Yes, for having once owned a team. They don't have to pay any players. That's right. There's no insurance costs. There's no liabilities for these guys. They don't have to put the money in. When does this end?

Yeah, well, that's a great question, Karen. So now, as the NBA is making more and more and more money, you know, and the teams, those four teams in particular are like, look, this is, this sucks. We hate this. They tried on multiple times. to basically buy the Cylma's out. Say, look, guys, what will it cost to just sever our arrangement?

Finally, finally, finally, in 2014, the NBA put an end to this agreement. They negotiated a deal. They were extremely, extremely anxious to negotiate this because the TV right deals

expired after the 2015-16 season, which meant that could be an entirely new contract. And it could be more. That's right. It would be more. You guys can probably guess what happened in the mid-2000s, late 2010s that made these dollar amounts go up, which is streaming rights, digital rights, web streaming. At this point, by 2014, from 1976 to 2014, the Cilnas had collected about $300 million from the league in TV rights. The NBA came to them.

That's so many Bobby Bonillas together. You could buy a lot of Bobby Benia Day contracts with that. Yeah. So the NBA came to the Silna brothers in 2014 and said, we would like to give you $500 million to walk away from this contract. And the Silna brothers said, yes, we will take your $500 million and we will walk away. So, yeah, all told, all told the Silna's recouped here over $750 million over the years for the truly, truly passive income of once owning the St. Louis

Because at some point, at some point, it's like, you have to figure the NBA is going to get sick of paying them and they're going to just stop paying. And then it's going to be like, sue us, sue the NBA, you know? And then you don't want to get into that. So if they come to you and they say, we're going to buy you out, like maybe you should, maybe you should do it. That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

And, you know, Ozzy Silna, the elder of the two brothers was, you know, he was getting older. He did in fact pass away just a couple years after they ended this contract. He's keeping him alive. He's three. That's right. Yeah, hey man. That's all Daniel still knows and pay his money now, right. I wonder if they would have taken a basketball team.

They were like, we'll give you a basketball team. So now you have to earn it, but you can't. You know what, Dana? Like, if you take the brothers at their word, I really do think they would have. I really do think it really sounds like they really, really wanted to own. They had tried actually to buy the

Detroit Pistons before they got into the ABA. So they really, yeah, basketball was in their blood. It just didn't, it didn't work out the way they thought, but boy, did it work out in another way. No frills, delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca.

All right. I have a quiz for you all today about the most watched events in the world, most watched on TV events in the world. So these are all things of world interest that happened. And they are like where most countries watch this, watch these things happen. It all felt like, oh, we should actually know this because this will come up in trivia, pub trivia. Oh, for sure. Yeah, these do. So I'm going to let each of you have a chance to crack these questions. We'll do a write in. All right, first question. So sporting events make up the highest global TV broadcast of all times.

But which sporting event type is the current global record holder with 3.6 billion views? Okay, okay. I think I've got a guess. Okay, what are your answers? I put the cricket finals. I would put forth the Olympics opening ceremonies. Oh. Put the FIFA World Cup.

It's the Summer Olympics, and so specifically the ones in London and in Rio both got 3.6 billion viewers. Wow. And the FIFA World Cup in Russia was very close, not quite as popular as the Summer Olympics. Okay. That's a lot of dang people. Okay. In 1969, 600 million people watch this event on TV around the world. What event was this?

1969 Okay, I have a guess I have a guess I have a guess I have a guess let's hear I put the Beatles on Ed Sullivan I put the moon landing Oh

Oh what else I immediately like Chris's answer better But I wrote Super Bowl 1 It was the moon landing Oh my gosh Yeah Okay in September of 1997

two billion people worldwide tuned in to which non-sporting event. Two billion people tuned in to watch this in September of 1997. Oh, oh. Two billion people watched this in September of 1997 and it is a non-sporting event? Yes. Okay. All right. I have my guess.

Oh, I have a guess, too. I wrote Princess Diana's funeral. I also wrote Princess Diana's funeral. Yes. It was Princess Diana's funeral. And her 1981 wedding to Prince Charles was watched by one billion people. Wow. That's, oh.

Yeah. In 1973, 1.5 billion people around the world watched the concert. Aloha from Hawaii via satellite. Who was the headliner? Okay. Okay. I put Elvis Presley. I, too, put Elvis Presley.

I put Elvis P., which I'm hoping you. I need a complete name, Chris. I'm sorry. Mocking J. Part 2. The fellowship of Presley. Yeah, I looked it up and I was like, well, how many TVs were in the world? Or how many people, actually, how many people lived in the world? So in 1973, there were 4 billion people in the world.

And 1.5 billion of them watch this concert. I think that when they do these kind of huge numbery kind of things, though, it's like there's people all over the world where like, you know, 8,000 people will all get together and you know around one TV you know what I mean like when they calculate it yeah so the number could be higher but this was his the soundtrack from this concert was his last

big seller of an album this was kind of near the end of his career let's see in 2015 the World Cricket Cup is estimated to have been seen by 2.2 billion people and one particular match was viewed by one billion people India

is one of the countries who is in this match that was viewed by a billion people can you name the other team i had to change this question because of the trivial pursuit one before about uh oh you have to rewrite it yeah about i was going to say name one country but uh okay i have a guess i have my guess is u k oh see i i had it done to 50 50 and i went i went with pakistan yeah yeah i'm going to go with the uk just because you know why not stick it up to the man it's pakistan Okay. Between 1974 and 1980,

Muhammad Ali fought in a series of high-profile boxing matches that were routinely viewed by like one to two billion people around the world. What was the name of his first one billion viewer match and who was he fighting? What was the name of the match? They all had names because they promoted the heck out of them. That's why billions of people watch them. I feel like it's 50-50 on. the match for me.

Me too. Yeah. Which one came first? Yep, exactly. I put Thrill in Manila and George Foreman. Okay. I put the only two that I could remember, which were Rumble in the Jungle. I think that was one and Frazier.

I put, I think we're going to have the variety pack here. Oh, yeah? I hope I have the correct combination. I put Rumble in the Jungle with George Foreman. Oh. Yes. Rumble in the Jungle with George Foreman. All right.

That one, and then the very next year was the Thrella and Manila. Two more questions. In January of 2009, which U.S. related event was viewed by one billion people around the world? I got this one, Dana. 100%. That's how confident I am. I mean, I don't know about 100%. I wrote something down.

2000. Okay. My guess is election. That wasn't even an election year. You're in the right. ballpark, I think. Okay. I put down the inauguration of Barack Obama. I too put down the inauguration of Barack Obama. Yes, the first inauguration of Barack Obama was viewed by a billion people. Wow. Yes. Okay. And last question. Which TV show that ran between 1989 and 2001 pulled in an estimated 1.1 billion viewers per

week around the world during its run. 1989. Oh. How? Isn't it bananas? That is really crazy. How? I feel pretty confident in my answer.

I have a guess. Colin, you seem sure. I feel confident. I'm not 100%. I'll say 99. I'm going to guess Seinfeld. It is Baywatch. Oh!

It's Baywatch. David Hasselhoff, superstar. Amazing. Amazing. Everybody in the world wants to watch people run around in their bathing suits. Baywatch. I guess that was too long for Seinfeld. They didn't run that long.

Yeah, but still, I wouldn't even imagine that many people. I don't even know anybody who actually watched Baywatched. I watched it. I remember there's a period in the 90s where it was like the running joke about how it's like the most watched show in Germany and the most watched show and this and that in the other country. and I guess it wasn't a joke. I guess it was, yeah. Equals 1.1 billion people watching it every week. Oh, wow.

That was amazing. Good job, David Castlehoff. All right. I have a last quick quiz. And I also have a listener challenge at the end. This is very short. I was hoping that I could make this a bigger quiz, but I have four very good questions for you guys.

I loved Wanda Vision. and also the idea of being trapped in a TV show. And so here I have a very quick quiz. I've compiled specifically movies about being trapped in another movie, in a fictional movie or in a fictional show. Okay. Okay. So here we go.

When we talk about, of course, people being trapped on a TV show, the go-to example nowadays in reference is Truman's show. Fantastic film. Tell me, what is Truman's last name? Oh, man. It is related to the fact that he is probably, he was born. His last name is probably a city name where he was born in. And he was probably born in a studio.

Okay. Is it Burbank? It is Burbank. That's great. Truman Burbank. Wow. Burbank, California, I believe that is where ABC, WB, a lot of the TV sound sets, yeah, yeah, our soundstages are Truman Burbank. Did you pull that out of the punch bowl, Dana, or did you just reason that out?

I reasoned it out. I was going to say in Los Angeles, and I was like, no, no. I think it specifically. Nice. Good job. All right. Musician Fiona Apple covered the Beatles song across the universe. The song in the music video did very, very.

very, very well. And this song was released as part of what movie's soundtrack? I'll tell you some of the people in this movie. Yeah. Jeff Daniels, William H. Macy, and the main stars are Reese Witherspoon and Toby McGuire. What movie about Trapped in a TV show is this? Oh, oh, oh, oh, it's Colin. Is it, welcome to Pleasantville?

It is Pleasantville. Pleasantville. Also. Okay, okay, okay. Fantastic movie about, especially being trapped into black and white TV show. That was a good one. I enjoyed that one more than I thought I would. I remember at the time.

The soundtrack is fantastic. It has like Big Bopper, as Buddy Holly. It has this song. It has a score was by Randy Newman. Fantastic soundtrack. All right. Little Kid Danny is trapped in a movie whose main character's name is Jack Slater. and he works for the LAPD.

What movie is this about being trapped in a fictional universe? Colin. Is this last action hero? Correct. His last action hero starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater. I believe the movie he's trapped in is Jack Slater five or six. Obviously a spoof on Arnold himself and on tropes about being an action hero. Yeah.

And had the always great. Charles dance in it as the villains. Tywin Lannister. Tywin Lannister was the villain. Very good. Okay. And lastly, this is one of my favorite movies. In what movie comedy was John Ritter,

trapped in a demonic cable TV world featuring spoofs like Beverly Hills 906666, Murder She Likes, Dwayne's Underworld, and Driving Over Miss Daisy. Yeah. Chris. Stay tuned. Stay tuned.

No, no. Matters not included. That's different. I love it. Eugene Levy's in it. I should rewatch this. There are other fantastic list of spoof's, three men and Rosemary's baby.

Autopsies of the Rich and Famous. But I really like murder she likes. This is a movie that basically just came out of a writer's room, just spitballing show titles. Yeah, that's right. And speaking of, action movies. Guys, I have a listener challenge here. And what I'm going to do before we end the show, I'm going to play clips of five songs. Five songs. There's a reason why they're together.

They have a theme that they all share. If you know the answer, tweet at us, share on our Facebook what you think the answer is, maybe give us an image or a meme or something. So yeah, I'm not going to give too many more clues, but here we go. Here are the songs. In disco on the outskirts of brisco I was cruising with my favorite gang The place was so boring Find your best to bring the water to your eyes Thinking it might stop her from whipping you're behind

I place no days Good Come back on smoke why did those days I want to go Those were good times We had to remember I want you to remember Those were good times

We had Sharing the joy That you loved the last It was a lot of the affection Just like the big glows up Just like my love everlasting And the beauty of it's still moving strong Do you ever wonder

to make those rainbows in my mind when I think of you some time and I want to spend some time with you just the two of us we can make it if we try just the two of us All right you guys if you know the theme

hit us up on Twitter on Facebook send up some fun memes some pictures, some references let us know. And that's our show. Thank you guys for joining me and thank you guys, listeners, for listening in. Hope you learn a lot of stuff about the Silenus brothers, about funny movie summaries, about most watched events, about game shows,

and of course about being trapped in a TV. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Audible, and on all podcast apps. And on our website, good job, braiding.com. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Louisville.

and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app. That's the Explorers Podcast.